CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATORS VIEW

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges and benefits of inclusive education for sustainable development in Nigeria. The need to educate all and sundry is what brought about the g1lobal programme of Education of All (EFA) as coordinated by UNESCO with laudable goals of realizing the educational needs of all persons irrespective of their diverse abilities and disabilities. This notwithstanding, this programme has both challenges and benefit. The degree to which learners can be well educated in an inclusive setting is a direct function of what obtains in the system and the manner with which the various challenges are handled. This study is a descriptive survey design with two objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses to guide the study. The researher purposefully selected a sample of 600 respondents which were drawn from different tertiary institutions in south east of Nigeria. this comprised of 300 Educational Administration Lecturers and 300 final year Learners to represent the entire population in the entire institutions which the researcher could not accurately ascertain during the time of this work. A researcher-made rating scale was validated and used as the instrument for collection of necessary data required for this study. The mean and standard deviation statistical tools were used to analyse the data at 2.50 decision mark. The independent z-test was adopted in testing the hypotheses. The result revealed that there is no significant differences between the mean score of Educational Administration Lecturers and Learners in the Tertiary Institutions in South East  on the challenges and benefits of inclusive education for sustainable development in Nigeria. In order to achieve value orientation, poverty reduction and better livelihood for all citizens of the country which will enable them contribute effectively towards the attainment of suitable development goals in Nigeria, the researchers recommended the following; that the government should sufficiently fund inclusive education activities to the lecturers and learners and make it practice based, special training for lecturers and staff of inclusive education, extensive public enlightenment for inclusive education etc.